Parkway North’s Men’s Wrestling and Girl’s Track Teams Look for Ways to Fundraise

girls trackIn an effort to raise money for new equipment, trips, and other items, sports teams resort to fundraisers to earn extra money. Two such teams are Parkway North’s wrestling team and girls track team.

“I think [fundraising] has become a necessity because it’s expensive to continue to buy equipment and uniforms,” said athletic director Kris Kellams. “School budgets cover a minimal amount of what’s needed for a sports program.”

On Tuesday, Jan. 16, Parkway North hosted its first annual wrestling fundraiser. For $1, participants could arm wrestle sophomore Principal Greg Wagener.

Wagener said that the two main reasons that the fundraiser was started were to “come support your Vikings; come see some wrestling.”

Winners received a red shirt that said “I Arm Wrestled Wagener and Won,” while losers received a bottle of Powerade. Among some of the winners were sophomore Meghan Mudd, freshmen Alonzo Powell, senior Takumi Inuzaki, and junior Mark Harris. According to Wagener, the reasons all the winners won were because he was purposely disadvantaged most of the time. Sometimes, he could only use a couple of fingers, and sometimes his opponents could use both hands.

“I think there were ten or fifteen kids there,” said Kellams, who believes that the fundraiser was successful in raising awareness of the wrestling team. According to Kellams, it raised about $20 that will go towards the annual Special Olympics in April.

The girls track team, coached by counselor Chandra Brown, have fundraisers throughout the year until the time track season starts in March, along with a ‘runathon,’ in which the girls receive money from sponsors and are responsible for running however many miles they’re paid for.

“For track, we fundraise through working concessions for fall and winter sports,” said Brown. “I really do think that they enjoy [fundraising], and they understand the importance of what we use the money for.”

According to Brown, “the school funds our trip to state. We just show up and take home a title,” but the money collected from fundraisers goes towards uniforms, track equipment, and anything else that is necessary at the moment.

By: Monyelle Asher  Staff Writer